Adding just one bed in hospital wards puts patients’ health in “manifest, grave and preventable” danger, according to the doctors’ union.
...a number of seriously ill patients, possibly in danger of dying... would be left in an Emergency Department corridor...
The Medical Association of Malta said in a judicial protest filed yesterday that due to the congestion at Mater Dei Hospital, management had decided to increase the number of beds in each ward from 24 to 26 or 27.
The MAM and the hospital also agreed that, as a temporary measure, another bed would be added to the more spacious rooms of the medical and surgical wards until a new ward was opened. But another agreement between the hospital’s management and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, which the MAM said it was unaware of and which cancelled the original one, reduced the additional beds to just one.
It meant, the doctors’ union charged, that “a number of seriously ill patients, possibly in danger of dying, as has already been the case, would be left in an Emergency Department corridor, which lacks the necessary structures”.
The original agreement was made in the interest of patients and to ease the “acute problem” of leaving them in corridors. It would have led to a solution, the MAM insisted, adding that available space was not being utilised. Medical consultants were protesting because they were ultimately responsible for the health and treatment of patients.
The MAM is holding Health Minister Joseph Cassar, Chief Medical Officer Natasha Azzopardi Muscat and hospital CEO Joseph Caruana responsible for any harm to the patients’ health as a consequence of being left in corridors, without adequate treatment.
The doctors are also holding the health authorities responsible for the damage the MAM and its members “have suffered, are suffering and may suffer due to their abusive behaviour”.
It criticised the “irresponsible action” jeopardising the health of patients and going against their interests”.
MAM called for the immediate withdrawal of the agreement it insists was made behind its back.